Biography

In the worlds of both jazz and classical music, Peter Dominguez is a renowned bassist and educator. He has performed with artists such as Tommy Flanagan, Benny Carter, and Woody Shaw, toured with the American Sinfonietta, studied with bass legends like Richard Davis and Robert Gladstone, and helped to form Michigan State University’s Jazz Studies program.

Peter Dominguez grew up in Milwaukee playing with his father, jazz pianist and singer Frank DeMiles. His teachers include Bernard Stepner, Willard Feldman, Clyde Russell, and Mitch Covic, as well as Roger Ruggeri and Richard Davis at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he earned baccalaureate and masters degrees. In 1980 he became the first recipient of the Milton J. Hinton Scholarship Competition Award and continued doctoral studies with Lucas Drew at the University of Miami, Coral Gables.

Eventually securing positions in both the Florida Philharmonic and at Michigan State University, Dominguez chose MSU, serving as professor of double bass and jazz studies from 1984-96, and was instrumental in developing its jazz studies program. During his Michigan years, he continued his studies with Robert Gladstone, former principal bassist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Having pursued double bass performance for 38 years in a variety of musical styles, Dominguez has appeared in venues throughout the Americas and Europe. He continues to perform with an impressive array of jazz, Latin, and classical artists—Benny Carter, Tommy Flanagan, Jon Hendricks, J.J. Johnson, John Lewis, Mark Murphy, Woody Shaw, Ira Sullivan, the Miami String Quartet, the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, the St. Petersburg Quartet, the Roycroft Chamber Players, and the Fontana Chamber Players.

As principal bassist, he served 10 years with the American Sinfonietta, 12 years with the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, and with the Jackson and Kalamazoo symphonies. As a section bassist, he’s worked with the Miami Chamber Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Outside of Oberlin, Dominguez teaches and adjudicates actively at International Society of Bassists conferences, international master classes and competitions, and the annual conference of the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists, of which he sits on the board of directors.